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A letter to the editor from me and @AvashiaNeema was published today. I'm pasting below in a thread. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/30/opinion/virtual-space-students-slip-through-boston-schools-fingers/
‘Dropout’ is the wrong label to use
Two pieces this week described Boston public school students as “virtual dropouts” (“Remote classes leave students disconnected” by Bianca Vázquez Toness, Page A1, May 24; “What’s the plan to get Boston’s virtual dropouts back to school?” by Joan Vennochi, Opinion, May 28)
This term implies choice. Even pre-pandemic, students did not “drop out” of our schools. Systemic inequality created conditions that pushed kids out.
When we call young people “dropouts,” it’s coded language. The underlying premise of victim-blaming is there if you listen for it
When we call young people “dropouts,” it’s coded language. The underlying premise of victim-blaming is there if you listen for it
In the context of a pandemic, everything from inadequate technology to food insecurity to health crises rains down on the heads of youth. Kids aren’t “dropping out.” They are shut out because we live in a profoundly inequitable society that has never put their needs first.
Labeling kids as young as 4 or 5 as dropouts sends a message that, on some level, we have given up on a subset of our youth. No matter what we say after that, our language shifts the onus onto our youth for not engaging.
In a week in which racial violence and racialized language have had deadly effects, being intentional about the language we use to describe students in a school district that is predominantly composed of students of color is more important than ever.
